Gupta Prosecutors Release List of Potential Witnesses

May 17 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chairman
Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn are among the people
whose names may emerge or be called as witnesses at the insider-trading trial of Rajat Gupta, prosecutors said.

Gupta, 63, a former Goldman Sachs director, is scheduled to
go on trial May 21, accused of giving former Galleon Group LLC
co-founder Raj Rajaratnam nonpublic information about Goldman
Sachs as well as Procter & Gamble Co. Gupta, who has pleaded not
guilty, is charged with five counts of securities fraud and one
count of conspiracy. The securities fraud carries a maximum term
of 20 years in prison.

More than 50 names were submitted by prosecutors to U.S.
District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan in a package of proposed
questions for potential jurors next week. Gupta submitted a list
of 116 names that included Blankfein and Cohn, Berkshire
Hathaway Inc. Chief Executive Officer Warren Buffett, and best-selling author Deepak Chopra, who is the founder of the Chopra
Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California. Both lists were
made public today.

Rakoff has said he has asked for 100 prospective jurors to
be summoned to court for the first day of the trial and said
opening arguments could be heard later the same day.

Jennifer Padovani, a Goldman Sachs director, is also on the
government’s list, as is Steven Peikin, a lawyer at Sullivan &
Cromwell LLP who advises the New York-based bank.

‘Certain Statements’

At a pretrial conference yesterday, Assistant U.S. Attorney
Reed Brodsky told Rakoff that Peikin’s testimony “will relate
to certain statements made by Mr. Gupta in an interview.”

Brodsky didn’t provide other details and declined to
comment further after court yesterday.

Michael DuVally, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs, declined to
comment on the witness list. Chris Mumma, a spokesman for Gupta,
also declined to comment.

Representatives from companies affected by the alleged
insider-trading scheme are on the list, including Alan “A.G.”
Lafley, the former chairman of Cincinnati-based Procter &
Gamble, who retired in 2010, and Jon Moeller, P&G’s chief
financial officer.

Sarah Trite, a spokeswoman for Lafley, said he had no
comment.

“We have been cooperating fully with government
investigators on this case including potentially giving oral
evidence if required,” Paul Fox, a spokesman for P&G, said in
an e-mail. He referred other questions to prosecutors and
Gupta’s attorney.

Former Galleon Executives

Former Galleon executives are also on the government’s
list, including Raj Rajaratnam and his younger brother, Rengan;
Galleon co-founder Gary Rosenbach; Ian Horowitz, who was Raj
Rajaratnam’s trader; and Michael Cardillo, a former Galleon
portfolio manager.

Anil Kumar, a former McKinsey & Co. partner who pleaded
guilty to insider trading and testified as a government witness
at Rajaratnam’s trial last year is also the list. Gupta ran
McKinsey, a consulting firm, from 1994 to 2003.

Among those on Gupta’s list are Goldman Sachs director
Claes Dahlback and Berkshire Hathaway reinsurance chief Ajit
Jain, a close friend of Gupta. The two were identified in a
hearing before Rakoff in January as possible defense witnesses.

Lakshmi Mittal, chairman of ArcelorMittal, the world’s
biggest steelmaker, is also named on Gupta’s list. Mittal has a
net worth of $16.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg
Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 40 richest
people.

The list included friends and family of Gupta, among them
his wife, Anita Gupta, and daughter, Geetanjali Gupta.

Prosecutors asked the judge to inform potential jurors that
they will hear from a witness “who was involved in the offenses
charged in the indictment and has pleaded guilty to crimes and
entered into a cooperation agreement.” They asked Rakoff to
inquire if potential jurors would have difficulty accepting
testimony from such a person.

The case is U.S. v. Gupta, 11-cr-00907, U.S. District
Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).